Hiatus

I'm beginning to feel like every time I post, it involves some detoured adventure from the mission. I have come to realize that I don't take photographs of everyday happenings, but I take LOTS of them for the "sideline restoration periods" that occur! So...  yet another adventure in my mission, that happened to occur over the top of HUMP DAY and Arlyn's birthday.

The event was Disneyland and beach house with the Bundy's. The time was a whole week. And the cumulative effect was extraordinary!

We started in Alhambra, CA, and visited a bunch of favorite haunts in Alhambra. 

We fed fat squirrels and saw cute turtles at Almansor Park, sang hymns with the Chinese missionaries, brought up Brother Bunker's hibernating Myrtle Turtle from his basement into the warm, outdoor sunshine, and ate yummy pastrami sandwiches from The Hat.

Then, we headed to the sand and sun at Newport Beach.

And Disneyland.

The beach house was super fun!  It opened up straight out onto a back patio, then right onto the beach sands. It's like we had our own private beach for the week. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeh!!

Bunker's beach house behind us

Loved climbing on the rock jettys that extended out into the ocean behind the house.

Kaden was buried deep into the sand, all except for his handsome eyes and winning smile! Luckily, those stayed above ground.












          And RJ --  Captive to plaster sister kisses on!!
           Gotta love that sand and sun -- and sisters!!

Coming up out of burial mode.

         

An awesome sandcastle was created by Bundy children and Nana while Russ and Michelle and RJ went to the Newport Beach temple one morning.                                                                                                                                                                                        

Two men and their beach, sun, waves, sand, fish, seashells, treasures...

      Happy, warm people who are very loved!

Such wonder, fun, and joy expressed in the tides of this HUGE ocean!

We spent a cool, rainy evening with extra Elder cousins on Balboa Island, almost completely and unusually deserted by people. We tested out Balboa Bars and frozen bananas on a stick. Both were superb!

We also tried a Disneyland adventure, and a California Adventure. Both were also quite to our liking!

Whether on Pirates of the Caribbean or King Arthur's Carousel, it was all great fun.

In Hollywood Land.

Entering Cars Land. So awesome! We loved it!

We raced against the other Bundy mobile at Radiator Springs. Though we had the coolest car, they had the fastest one. They won.

Nana and RJ, the old and young. But he's looking more and more grown-up all the time!
We rode on a wild ride through Mater's Junkyard.

We girls sported very stylish, 3-D glasses as we headed into Toy Story Games.

Kaden is a very serious bumper-car enthusiast in Bug Land.

Look who we found! A cute, hairy, blue MONSTER!

Though pictures can capture a thousand words, we didn't take nearly enough pictures to capture the magic, love, enjoyment, and rejuvenation we experienced on this quick mission interval. Whether visiting Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, the Haunted Mansion, Tiki Room, Thunder Mountain, Tower of Terror, or California Screamin', we loved every single second of our time together. On the sand, in the water, snuggled in a very cool beach house, eating fun foods, visiting with princesses, riding the ferry across Balboa Island, laying next to and singing quiet lullabies to very sleepy grandchildren each night, gathering TONS of seashells, swimming in the pool in Alhambra, ocean breezes and quiet night walks on the beach, NOT losing the keys at Disneyland after all, laughing as Russ and Michelle screamed when our ferris wheel car swung so precariously on rails...

How do you capture it all... except in your heart.

After the Bundy's left for home, as I locked up the wonderful beach house where we stayed, I felt quite overwhelmed with both gratitude for the time spent with my dear family, and deep emotion for how homesick I felt for them as they left. It was a very special hiatus that will never be forgotten.
Thank you for sharing your Christmas gift with me, Bundy's.

Love you Bundy Bunch!!!